The Noose
by Raivis-Latvijas
Summary: Croatia's tired of the lies. Serbia's just trying to keep Yugoslavia together the best he can. An argument, a mistake, an empty promise.


**A/N: **This story was loosely inspired by the song "The Noose" by A Perfect Circle. The rest of the inspiration comes from various thoughts running through my head while watching television late at night.

This story is a oneshot about my two OCs Serbia and Croatia, and how their relationship fell apart during the second Yugoslavia after WWII. This story isn't extremely historically accurate, so don't kill me if things are wrong.

There are few other OCs in here other than Serbia and Croatia, but they won't play any very major roles. Here's a list of names for all the OCs either involver or mentioned, just so no one gets confused.

Serbia- _Novak Novkovic_

Croatia- _Andelko Begovich_

Slovenia- _Pavla Prockofijev_

Macedonia- _Nikodemos Antonov_

Montenegro- _Branko Njegos_

Without further ado, here's "The Noose".

**xxxxxxxxx**

Croatia stepped into the home of the Serbian representation, practically radiating anger and frustration. He definitely had a few words to speak to Serbia, and they weren't nice at all. He had known before that Novak had lied plenty of times, but this time, Andelko wasn't going to ignore the lies. He was going to combat them, make Novak tell the truth for once. Andelko, like always, knew what was going on around the Land of the Southern Slavs; _Yugoslavia._

He turned a corner after walking a few feet and found himself in the kitchen, where his target and two other representations resided. Serbia was sitting at the kitchen table reading a newspaper with a slight frown, while Slovenia and Macedonia were standing off by the counter, chatting quietly. All went quiet when Serbia noticed Croatia enter though.

"Good morning, Andelko." The Serbian representation stated calmly.

"Good morning? _Good morning?_ Hah, what's so good about waking up to an invasion looking pretty close to happening, Novak?" Croatia retorted, crossing his arms. Serbia sighed and stood, setting the newspaper he had previously been reading down.

"An invasion will not happen, I assure you of-"

"Lies!" Croatia cut Serbia off with an accusation. "There is a mass of Soviets and Hungarians ready on the borders! You told me things were calming down, but they're only getting worse!"

"Andelko, please. Stop this. An argument with you is the last thing I need right now." Serbia's voice showed that he was having a hard time keeping calm.

"Because you know the region is on the brink of war! You've allowed Slovenia to shoot down two American planes all because you want to suck up to that Russian bastard up north! Look where it's gotten us! Russia's not taking your bullshit, and neither am I! I'm tired of you trying to make all of us become the Soviet Union!" Croatia stepped a bit closer to Serbia, fists now clenched tightly at his sides.

"Is that what you think I'm doing, Andelko? Let me explain. I am trying to bring us together; you, me, Slovenia, Macedonia, all of us. But it's people like _you_ who never give me chance to get any closer to my goal." Serbia tossed an accusation back at Croatia, a bit of malevolence showing in his voice now.

"There you go again, telling lies, digging the hole, tightening that god damned noose! Why don't you stop lying to us, Novak? The truth will bring us closer, not this madness! You know that!"

"Please, Andelko, listen to some fucking reason!"

"_Reason? _What kind of reason is this? All I hear out of your mouth is lies; not reason! You have no proper explanation for anything you've done and allowed to happen!"

"Enough! Andelko, I'm doing the best I can to control the situations that arise! You just have to listen to me for-"

"I'm done listening to you, Serbia! You tell me nothing but nonsense and lies!"

"That's not true! I cannot believe you would say something like that! I'm not lying to you when I say that I'm trying to handle the situations and make the best of them!"

"You can't make the best of war, Novak! We're one step away from Russia invading! We can't handle another war; Serbia, history repeats itself, but you don't have to be the aggressor!"

"So you're saying we should just lie down and give away our freedom?"

"What freedom is there to give? Tell me what freedom we have to lose!"

"Andelko; shut the fuck up and just let me-"

Before Serbia could finish, Croatia promptly punched him right in the jaw, sending the Serbian representation stumbling backwards into the wall.

Both stared at eachother in shock. Serbia slid down the wall; hand over the newly forming bruise on his jaw, breathing shakily. Croatia looked to the hand he had just used against Serbia, then back to the other representation.

"Novak, I-I…" He struggled to find words to say; struggled to apologize. Had he just _hit_ Serbia?

Croatia approached the blonde man slowly, but Serbia scrambled away, standing hastily and rushing off to his room. The slamming of the bedroom's door made Croatia flinch, and he then realized how badly he had just screwed up his and Serbia's relationship. He glanced over to Slovenia and Macedonia, struggling to speak.

"Man, you have no clue how much you just made my day." Macedonia commented, smirking and patting the shocked Croatian on the shoulder as he left the area; most likely to go find Montenegro. Slovenia simply looked to Croatia with sympathy, knowing far too well that he had never meant to hurt Serbia.

"P-Pavla, I… Wh-What did I…" Croatia couldn't find any words as Slovenia got a bit closer to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Go apologize, Andelko. You know you didn't mean to; make him know you didn't mean to." She told him before following in the steps of Macedonia and exiting the area as well.

Croatia bit his lip and took a deep breath, knowing it wasn't going to be easy to make Serbia believe that he was sorry and didn't mean to hit him. But even though he knew he had a difficult task ahead of him, he walked to Serbia's room and placed his hand on the doorknob, slowly turning it and opening the door.

Inside the room, Serbia was sitting on the edge of the bed, obviously crying. The Serbian representation's face was buried in his hands, and his body shook with silent sobs. Croatia's chest tightened painfully at the sight.

He stepped in and slowly walked over to Serbia, sitting next to him, holding back a sigh. Serbia paid no attention to the larger man beside him and continued to sob quietly. Croatia bit his lip and stared down at the floor, not knowing what to say. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, before finally letting some words out.

"I-I shouldn't have done that, Novak… I didn't think… God, there's no way for me to apologize to you… I… I should leave… I don't know what to do, let alone what to say…" He said. Serbia's shaky, quiet voice responded in a manner that Croatia didn't expect at all.

"P-Please… D-Don't leave, Andelko… I-I… I-I've come to realize that I-I can't keep lying l-like this anymore… N-Not with how h-hostile it makes you t-towards me…"

Croatia was caught off guard and turned to face Serbia, a bit confused.

"But I just…. I just hit you, Novak… Aren't you in the least bit appalled that I would try to apologize?" He questioned.

"N-No… Y-You had a r-reason to hit me. I-I had no reason t-to be lying to you like I-I have been… C-Can you forgive me?" Serbia replied, looking up slightly to the Croatian representation beside him.

"You don't have to ask for forgiveness." Croatia replied, wrapping his arms around Serbia and holding him close. Serbia turned and buried his face into Croatia's shoulder, hands clenching tightly at the fabric of the other man's shirt.

"Shh… Everything will be okay, Novak… I promise; I'll never do anything to harm you ever again…"

_But as it turned out, the promise was broken not even a week later, when Croatia struck Serbia again; this time an apology wasn't accepted as quickly. The two continued to fight back and forth, eventually to the point of an all-out brawl between the representations. The metaphorical noose around their necks was getting tighter, and the hole below them was getting deeper and deeper. Others watched as the second Yugoslavia eventually fell apart, Serbia and Croatia; former lovers, turned to bitter enemies within a generation filled with deception, lies, and wars never meant to be fought._

_The noose only got tighter for both._

**xxxxxxxxx**

**A/N: **Well wasn't that just lovely? Well, time to go to bed. It's one in the morning.

Please review, by the way!


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